The decision to move the Norwegian Joy from China to the North American market has been successful for Norwegian Cruise Line.

“The redeployment of Norwegian Joy to Alaska resulted to a profound improvement to her profitability, especially in the top line driven by more than doubling of her onboard revenue generation,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO, on the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ second-quarter earnings call.

The decision to pull the ship from China came in 2018, as part of the company’s strategic itinerary optimization initiative which also included its entry into new European homeports.

The North American launch of Norwegian Joy generated over $2.5 billion media impressions and further elevated Norwegian Cruise Line’s already the preeminent position in the all-important growing and high-yielding Alaska market, Del Rio said.

“We are extremely pleased to not only see her garnering the high pricing she rightfully deserves but also to see her deliver a customer experience that ranks her first in guest satisfaction for the Norwegian brand, driven by the high-tech and industry-first innovation onboard.”

Next year is shaping up to be even stronger for Joy in North America.

“And I may add that we won’t have the challenges of selling Joy, a very large ship, in a very abbreviated eight-, or nine-month booking cycle like we did this year when we announced her departure from China,” Del Rio explained.”We have a regular (18- to 24-month) booking cycle in front of us.”

According to Andy Stuart, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, Joy is ahead in the pricing of the vessel she replaced in the Alaska market.

Bullish on Alaska, the growth will grow with the Norwegian Sun joining the market in 2020, sailing seven- to 15-day cruises from Seattle.

“We believe the Norwegian Sun Alaska deployment will generate yield that will approach, if not be equal to what she was commanding in her Cuba deployment led by strong onboard spending,” Del Rio said.